Thursday, January 7, 2016

VEA President Meg Gruber will address the General Assembly regarding Governor McAuliffe's proposed 2016-2018 proposed state budget this afternoon at the Richmond budget hearing. Her remarks are as follows:

Good day. I am Meg
Gruber a HS science teacher and the President of the 50,000 member Virginia
Education Association.

We support Governor’s McAuliffe’s 2016-2018 budget and to
implore you to do more.

For the first time in a very long time there is substantial
new money for K-12 but you know as well as I that it is not enough. I would
first urge you to restore the Standards of Quality to truly reflect the actual
cost of providing a quality education across the Commonwealth. Not only has the state been shirking its obligation, the state has pushed the burden on to the localities. You must restore the SOQ formula to reflect actual
costs of our schools. It’s what our
students need and deserve.

You know that these cuts impact poor school divisions more
than more affluent ones, endangering the achievement of some of the most
disadvantaged children. Economically disadvantaged children are falling farther
behind as classes get larger, teacher aides are eliminated, and technology is
both inadequate and outdated. Lack of funds compromises the educational
opportunity of all our children, especially those who struggle in school. How does this ensure the future of Virginia’s
schools, workforce and the economy? You
know it does not!

The Governor’s proposed budget must be viewed in the context
of the significant decline in state commitment to our public schools over the
past decade. To our detriment of our children, the state’s contribution to our
students, on a per-pupil basis, is down nearly 15 percent since 2009. We now
rank a lowly 41st in the nation on that measure.

On another measure of our priorities, we are even worse. The
competitiveness of Virginia teacher pay is ranked worst in the nation by the Education
Law Center at Rutgers University. Virginia teacher salaries are almost $6,800
under the national average.

The state must be a vital partner in raising teacher pay,
but the state’s share of a pay increase for teachers since 2009 is as follows:

• 2009: 0%

• 2010: 0%

• 2011: 0%

• 2012: 0%

• 2013: 0%

• 2014: 2%,
but only for 11 months

• 2015: 0%

• 2016: 1.5%
but only for 10.5 months

And this is only applies on the SOQ funded positions that
you deliberately cut by placing arbitrary caps on needed support personnel
pushing the burden on to the localities.

And over this time health insurance costs have risen, the
state deleted inflationary costs of health insurance for school employees but
not for state workers. This has ensured that many teachers and staff’s
take-home pay DECREASES every year.

The competitiveness of Virginia teacher pay is ranked worst
in the nation by the Education Law Center at Rutgers University. Virginia
teacher salaries are almost $6,800 under the national average.

All this occurred while the number of students in Virginia
public schools has increased along with more children of poverty, and more
children with special needs.

It’s time for the members of the
General Assembly take an honest look over the last 8 years and acknowledge the
tremendous negative impact this has had upon our students and to right this
injustice to our children and fulfill the promise of the Constitution of the
Commonwealth of Virginia which states the state must “seek to ensure that an
educational program of high quality is established and continually
maintained.” The state has not
maintained an educational program of high quality. The only reason that Virginia has high
quality public schools is from the PERSONAL sacrifices of teachers and
staff.

Virginia should not be 41st in the
Nation in per-pupil funding and last in the competitiveness of teacher
salary. We can and we must do better for
our children!